Tuesday, 8:25 a.m.

NEW ORLEANS -- With most of the power out here, not only is there no air conditioning, but there's also no refrigeration.

Photo by Lee McGuire

JACKPOT!

It means ice is precious. Our hotel has ice machines on every floor, but under each one lies an enormous puddle of water. We need to find ice to keep our food and water supplies cold in our cooler. Otherwise it will be warm Gatorade and Pop Tarts for days.

Then – score! For security reasons, I won't tell you where we found this working restaurant-level ice machine, but we found it. It even had scoops.

We asked the owner's permission (he said yes), and we loaded up on ice. It felt like we had struck gold.

Posted by 11 News reporter Lee McGuire

Monday, 6:49 p.m.

We can see the sun -- finally. Well, we did get a glimpse of it during the eye of Gustav.  We are just out of Lake Charles, Louisiana and headed for Texas. 

For us, Gustav is “Gone Baby Gone.”

Our drive from Morgan City took us to New Iberia, Lafayette, and Lake Charles. Coincidentally, this is the exact path that Gustav took before shifting north and heading to East Texas.

Mike drove through wind gusts that rocked the van. Jay was uploading video and began to complain of motion sickness. 

Gustav, the “storm of the century?”

Hardly!

Gustav is now a piece of history that lives in the memory of the Morgan City residents who rode it out. Those who evacuated three miles north to Bayou Vista, Louisiana and were staying with us in our hotel will remember their mini vacation that was soiled by rain.

And, finally, the lady who evacuated across the highway will remember the hurricane that spared her home.

Posted by Storm Chasers Mike Millo and Jay Carnes

Monday, 2:20 p.m.

At this moment, we are in the Eye of Gustav.

Our powers that be insist that for us to be in the eye of two hurricanes in one season is an accomplishment. 

We have strolled through Morgan City and have photos to showing Gustav’s first half wrath. 

Thus far, for a Cat 2, registering 956 mb, with our top measurable wind gust of 119 mph, he has been relatively nice to this city. 

We are heading back to the hotel to take care of some business and to attempt to load video.

We are planning on hanging around to see what the back half has to offer. 

Until then, we are going to have some lunch and Mike may even have a nap.

Those who know him will not be surprised.

Posted by storm chasers Jay Carnes and Mike Millo

Monday, 12:15 p.m.

NEW ORLEANS -- Had it not been for the catastrophe that was Hurricane Katrina, chances are that Hurricane Gustav would have been far worse for New Orleans and surrounding parishes than it has been so far.

Katrina forced the federal government to finally address hundreds of millions of dollars in levee upgrades that local leaders had been urging for years.

Some of those upgrades were ambitious -- others were much smaller. It's one of the smaller ones that appears to be saving a large portion of the Upper Ninth Ward from flooding. Water is overtopping the levee that is holding back the Industrial Canal, but engineers tell us that it is expected to hold, and prevent a wall of water from flowing into New Orleans.

That levee was strengthened after Katrina, but it is a relatively inexpensive change that may be sparing us from disaster: After Katrina, the Corps of Engineers added what looks like a concrete sidewalk to the base of the levee on the dry side. Its job is to prevent "scour" in situations just like these. When water overtops the levee (as is happening now), it scrubs away the dirt that shores the levee up. The concrete walkway prevents the water from scouring the support -- so the levee can retain its integrity much, much longer.

Jeremy Desel just got back from there and tells me the water is knee deep on the land side of the levee. That's not great, but knee deep is better than 12 feet deep, and that's what we would have had if the concrete reinforced levees were not there. Now we'll just have to wait and see if all the levees hold.

Posted by 11 News reporter Lee McGuire

Monday, 8:20 a.m.

NEW ORLEANS—The hurricane is here. The power went out three hours ago, and we are operating off of a generator at the studios of our sister station, WWL-TV. Frank McBride and I have been doing live shots all morning for our Belo stations around the country (and KHOU). Here’s how we’re doing it: Frank stands inside a parking garage, and shoots outside the door—and I stand in the wind and the rain and talk about it. We’re both getting soaked, but at least we’re not exposed to the elements too badly.

We did see a giant sheet metal smiley face get ripped off the side of a tattoo parlor a few minutes ago. The face flew down the street and turned a corner.

All this wind has now made it impossible to continue doing live shots from this location. Not only is it getting more dangerous for Frank and I to stand just outside that parking garage, but the huge satellite dish we use to transmit the signal is getting blown around. Once our engineers in the truck started to hear “creaking” (as they call it), it was time to stow the dish in a safe position. This way, we don’t break the equipment, and can resume broadcasting once the winds die down. That could be quite a while.

One last thing: If you were watching 11 News This Morning during the 5 a.m. hour you may have seen us make a few attempts at “Skype” live shots. This is a technology that we are testing here at 11 News. It’s basically videophone technology that uses a Webcam and a broadband wireless connection. It worked very well when we didn’t have a hurricane on top of us. Today, however, it’s been spotty at best. If it works, it would be ideal in a situation like we are in now, when we cannot transmit high-quality video using our satellite equipment. However, our on-air experience this morning has been less than impressive. If you were watching, you know what I’m talking about. It’s almost like Skype decides to quit working when it knows we’re on the air. When we’re off the air, it works great!

Posted by 11 News reporter Lee McGuire

Monday, 8:15 a.m.

GALVESTON ISLAND—Not even the threat of rip currents is keeping people off the beaches here.

Photo by Alex Sanz

Labor Day looking nice for Galveston, despite Gustav's threat.

A growing number of surfers have taken to their boards.

Parents—young children in tow—are dipping their feet in the water. And joggers? They’re enjoying their morning routine up and down Seawall Boulevard.

Hurricane Gustav spared the island a direct hit, and people are thrilled.

Business owners are hoping conditions stay as they are—sunny, with a light breeze—so they can cash in on the last official day of summer.

It’s still early in the day, but this Labor Day may end up being one of the nicest ones we’ve seen in a while, assuming Gustav stays on its current track.

Posted by 11 News reporter Alex Sanz

Monday, 8:08 a.m.

MORGAN CITY, La. -- We are in Morgan City, and the rain has certainly increased; however, it is not bad as we are roaming around the town.  “We” now includes Steve Long of Webster who joined us at 3:00 a.m. in our hotel room.  He was traveling solo, so we thought there is safety in numbers.   

Morgan City seems to be a no Wal-Mart town, however, do not be too upset for them, as there is one just 3 miles west in a city called Bayou Vista. 

The only signs of human activity are the news crews near the flood walls, the hospital, and one police officer who is standing guard to protect his city.   We are going back to the hotel to wait for the eye to make its way to us. Gustav should be here soon.

Posted by storm chaser Mike Millo

Monday, 5:45 a.m.

GALVESTON ISLAND – There’s a hurricane out there to be sure.  But life here is business as usual.  The only sign of Hurricane Gustav are the swollen waters of the Gulf of Mexico.  Whitecaps – those waves with a broken crest, blown by the wind – define the coastline as far as the human eye can see. 

Photo by Alex Sanz

The beaches of Galveston as Gustav nears land.

And the wind is light, blowing at about 10 mph, though we have seen the occasional gust up to 20 mph.  On this Labor Day, a day widely known as the unofficial end of summer, tourists are here for the last long weekend of the season. 

 Island businesses rely on them. Both stand to do well today. City officials are keeping an eye on the storm, lest it make an unexpected turn. 

But they’re also encouraging people to get out and enjoy the day. The only warning is for beachgoers. Avoid the water.

Riptides and high surf are going to be a problem. Most people are just thankful the island, for the third time in as many months, has dodged a direct hit from a tropical system.

Posted by 11 News reporter Alex Sanz

Monday, 4:00 a.m.

Grab a mattress and find a dark corner—that’s the name of the game here in Baton Rouge. 

Photographer Jim Wineman and I spending the eve of Gustav’s arrival at a public TV access station in Baton Rouge on the floor. 

There are several other people here from other Belo stations in Texas and Louisiana.  

People are trying to catch a few zzzzz’s while they can.

Obviously, I can’t. 

It’s 4 a.m., and I’ve already seen 3 a.m. and 2 a.m.  I think it’s going to be an all-nighter.

Right now, it’s calm and quiet outside.  Kind of eerie.

Conditions are expected to change in the next couple of hours and the morning crews are just now getting up to got ready. 

Should be interesting…will keep you updated…

Posted by 11 News reporter Courtney Zubowski

Sunday, 9:15 p.m.

There’s certainly a sense of relief tonight in Galveston. No advisories or warnings have been issued by the city’s emergency management office. Right now officials are just continuing to monitor the storm. 

Now if you just take look at the tourists, you would hardly know a hurricane is even in the Gulf. The beaches were full this afternoon and plenty of folks were enjoying the sunshine this Labor Day weekend. Can you blame them?

Posted by 11 News reporter Kevin Peters

Sunday, 8:20 p.m.

Hurricane GUSTAV, here we come. We have loaded our van, turned on a web cam so that you can see our progress. 

Mike Milo

The KHOU.com storm chasers found plenty of gas stations in Louisiana that had run out of fuel.

Currently, we are in the Lake Charles area and there is minimal traffic heading west. Needless to say, there is even less traffic heading east.  

Weather is fine as of now. We are in touch with meteorologists, KHOU, and a camera crew from Florida who want to shoot footage of us for a program that is being produced in London.  

Does this make us internationally famous as storm chasers?

Posted by KHOU.com Storm Chasers Jay Carnes and Mike Milo

Sunday, 7:30 p.m.

NEW ORLEANS -- The outer bands of Hurricane Gustav are crossing the Louisiana coast and some rain has begun to fall in New Orleans as night falls.

Click here for a Livecast report from New Orleans.

Posted by 11 News reporter Jeremy Desel

Sunday, 11:07 a.m.

THE FRENCH QUARTER—Just in the last twenty minutes the sun went away and the clouds rolled in. They’re low, dark clouds that sweep overhead quickly. It’s adding a sense of urgency to the continuing evacuation here. People who had hoped for a few more hours to escape or prepare are beginning to hear what the National Hurricane Center told us a few minutes ago—that Gustav is moving much faster than expected, and will arrive early tomorrow morning. That’s 18 hours earlier than where the projected landfall timeline stood yesterday afternoon.

By the way, the accelerated timeline is a good news/bad news scenario. The bad news is, the storm surge is predicted to be much higher, mainly because it’s a combination of the wind speed within the storm and the forward speed of the storm: the faster the storm moves, the more water gets pushed out in front of it. The good news is, the storm will now strike during daylight. My colleague Jeremy Desel (who just bought a second cup of coffee at the only store near us that’s still open) has experienced strong hurricanes in the dark. He says daylight storms are far preferable.

“I’d rather not be hit in the head with a brick,” he said. “You can see the bricks coming in the daytime.”

True, but neither he nor I will be outdoors when the brunt of this storm strikes. This morning, we’re finalizing plans for our own protection. Not only do we have ourselves to worry about, but we are here with a team of photographers and engineers that are taking the pictures and putting us on the air. Between us, I’d estimate that we’ve been through 30 hurricanes. It’s a lot of combined experience, and we’re counting on it (and each other) to keep us safe during number 31.

We plan to ride out Gustav in one of two places: Either the WWL-TV studios, which is reinforced and built to withstand a strong storm, or in a conference room at one of the major downtown hotels. These are not decisions that we make lightly. As much as we’d like to cover the hurricane while it is happening—we’d rather not get hit in the head with a brick.

Posted by 11 News reporter Lee McGuire

Sunday, 9:00 a.m.

THE FRENCH QUARTER, NEW ORLEANS -- We've been here all morning doing live shots for our sister stations around the country, and the conversations I've heard in the streets of the French Quarter are generally the same.

Neighbors are asking each other if they're staying -- and in general, the answer is "yes."

Of course, these are the folks who are still here, who have decided not to follow the Mayor's instructions that they leave.

They believe that since the buildings have stood here for 200 years, that they will withstand this, too.

The storm's track indicates that the Quarter will be spared major damage and flooding, but the uncertainty in the projections adds considerable doubt for all of us.

As I write this, church bells are ringing down the street, calling parishioners to the ten o'clock service.

Posted by 11 News reporter Lee McGuire

Sunday, 6:45 a.m.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. —What a week it’s been.

I hopped on a plane to South Florida last week for what was supposed to be a week of rest. Instead, it became a week of anxiety for people on the state’s Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

I flew over the remnants of Fay on the way here.

Early in the week, Gustav blossomed in the warm Atlantic waters.

Now, as Gustav heads toward the Gulf Coast, Hanna is creeping closer to the United States.

I’m heading back to Houston on Sunday, leaving a state surrounded by storms. I’ll be somewhere along the southeast Texas coast, reporting on-air and online, first thing on Monday morning.

A lot of people are going to have a long and difficult week.

Posted by 11 News reported Alex Sanz

Saturday, 3:33 p.m.

NEW ORLEANS -- We're getting reports that every flight out the main New Orleans airport is booked solid with people fleeing ahead of Gustav. Not everyone is paying for a ticket or even cares where they are going.

The city is providing free transportation for people who cannot drive themselves out of town -- some 30,000 folks, according to the official estimate -- and their pets (and luggage).

A large number of those people will be leaving by air. We saw dozens of buses depart the downtown Greyhound station bound for the airport. Only when they got their tickets and passed through security would the people on board learn where their final destination would be. One bus was bound for flights that would eventually land in Boston.

Major airlines have been adding extra flights for today and tomorrow to increase the number of people they can ferry out of the area. Commercial flight operations will cease at 6 p.m. Sunday, and no one will be allowed to remain in the airport after that point.

Tourists had better move quickly if they plan to fly out -- hotel shuttles will end operations at 8 p.m. Saturday night.

Posted by 11 News reporter Lee McGuire

Saturday, 2:25 p.m.

NEW ORLEANS—One of the many things emergency managers learned after Katrina was that thousands of people who refused to evacuate New Orleans before the storm did so because the refused to leave their pets behind.

This time, the city has launched an impressive evacuation effort that involves trains, buses, and airplanes. It also involves pets.

Photo by Lee McGuire

We just got to see how this works. Pets can’t go on the same buses as people, because their crates take up far too much room—and they can’t be stored in hot luggage compartments.

So, the dogs and cats are being loaded into carrier crates and placed on a series of air-conditioned 18 wheelers.

They’re being stacked on top of each other like freight.

This operation is being carefully managed by a series of SPCA groups—so it’s about as humane a system as one could expect in this kind of situation.

People cannot ride in the 18 wheelers along with their pets.

As a dog owner, I can only imagine how traumatic it must be (for the people and the dogs) to leave your pet in a carry case in a back of a tractor trailer while you leave for a different bus.

The good news is, in theory, the animals will be reunited with their owners at a common shelter location once the trips are complete.

The bad news is, your dog may give you the cold shoulder for a couple days after that.

Posted by 11 News reporter Lee McGuire

Saturday, 11:30 a.m.

NEW ORLEANS - Landfall is still more than 48 hours away, but I have already seen several downtown gas stations that are completely out of fuel.

It’s not a good sign for a city that is preparing residents for a potential mandatory evacuation later today or tomorrow.

In one sense, it means people are fueling up and heading out - which is good news. However, it also presents an “infrastructure” question: have emergency planners done enough to ensure a steady supply of fuel for residents as they evacuate?

Photo by Lee McGuire / 11 News

This is the evacuation bus line in New Orleans.

Once contraflow begins, there are very few opportunities to exit a highway and gas up even at the stations that do have fuel. That’s why it's so important to have working fuel stations at the point of departure—something that for now, downtown New Orleans residents do not have.

Posted by 11 News reporter Lee McGuire

Friday, 8 p.m.

Louisiana running out of gas

IBERIA PARISH, La. -- While no mandatory evacuations have been called for, several communities in Louisiana were suggesting that residents in low-lying communities to go ahead and clear out in advance of Hurricane Gustav.

However, getting out of town with a full tank of gas was proving difficult. In the communities in Iberia Parish, La. gas stations are reporting that they are out of gas.

There were reports of gas shortages in New Iberia, Jeanerette and Franklin.

The shortages come as Louisiana officials consider calling for mandatory evacuations.

On Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency waived some clean-fuel requirements in 16 Louisiana parishes to help increase supply of gas in the state.

-- As reported by 11 News producer Tracy Jackson

Friday, 6:10 p.m.

Not many cars going into Louisiana, plenty leaving

NEW ORLEANS – As the 11 News crew arrived in the Crescent City, there was very little traffic heading east into New Orleans. There were plenty of cars already heading the other way, even as Mayor Ray Nagin has yet to call for any evacuations.

-- As reported by 11 News reporter Jeremy Desel

Friday, 5:17 p.m.

NEAR BATON ROUGE, Louisiana -- We’re driving down I-10 bound for New Orleans, and I’ve been struck by two things on the trip: first, the woman I met at a Target who said she saw gas prices jump twenty cents in ten seconds today at a local gas station (which prompted me to notice that prices are gradually increasing the closer we get to New Orleans); and second, the number of Wal-Mart trucks we’ve passed on the freeway.

11 NEWS

Wal-Mart trucks are making a beeline for the Big Easy.

Right now the number stands at seven (and we’re approaching another).

We are clearly driving faster than whatever speed Wal-Mart recommends for its drivers, but the sheer number of trucks heading to supply New Orleans-area Wal Marts is impressive.

It reminds me of a New York Times article I read way back in 2004. The article discussed what Wal-Mart calls “predictive technology.” In a nutshell, servers at the company’s Bentonville, Arkansas headquarters constantly track what consumers are buying at every store across the country. Over the years the company has learned a thing or two about what people think they need prior to a major hurricane.

The number-one item? Beer.

Wal-Mart’s chief information officer told the Times that the company also noticed that customers crave Pop Tarts before a big storm.

So one could easily reason that I’ve now passed eight trucks filled with beer and Pop Tarts here on I-10.

-- Posted by 11 News reporter Lee McGuire